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Alinor shook with laughter. "Oh no, she will not. You do not value Ela as I have come to value her. She is too wise to teach a healthy mare like Joanna the tricks of a frail bird. And she is clever, Ian. You do not know how clever, and I will not tell you. She does not tend her men and her flock and her fields as I tend mine, but that Joanna knows already and, God willing, I will have some years more to teach her. Ela can teach Joanna what I never could because, of a truth, I dare not go near King John. She can teach the child the ways of the court, and with Ela there and right under Salisbury's eye, Joanna will be safe enough." |
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"Safe for now," Ian said uneasily. "Yet I am not over-happy that she should go to court. She will attract the king's eye and, even now, all unripe as she is, Joanna is beautiful." |
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"There may be a little to fear in that, but not more than in her going to court as, say, Geoffrey's bride and striking that lecher's gaze in the full beauty of her womanhood." |
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Ian shifted from one foot to the other. Alinor watched him as, without speaking, he pulled off his bedrobe and reached for the shirt she had laid out. He shook his head at Alinor when she moved to help him, even though she could see some of his motions pulled at the new set of stitches and caused him pain. Hurriedly, Alinor dressed also, distastefully aware that her clothes were dirty and stained and not particularly becoming. She fastened the veil of her wimple and turned to see Ian, his face very still and quite expressionless, start toward the door. |
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"Ian," she cried softly, "beloved, what is your discontent? I have hurt us both through unadvised silence. Do not you now fall into the same error." |
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He looked at her blankly for a moment, then lifted his eyes and looked over her head. "My discontent is in myself, Alinor, not in youexcept that you have offered |
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